When people dream about the future of driving, they picture hundreds of millions of cars humming almost imperceptibly on batteries or fuel cells, their power plants emitting water vapor or nothing. Rarely does petroleum fuel—and foul—the green fantasy.
But don’t let that vision distract you from reality. Although the world’s biggest automakers are determined to bring electrified cars to the masses, their real business—and the world’s business—will continue to revolve around the internal combustion engine for decades to come. The signs are accumulating: Morgan Stanley now projects that just 4.5 percent of new cars sold in 2025 will be EVs, sharply down from its previous estimate of 8.6 percent.
Yet change is afoot, change that heralds the remaking of the invention that first began to put the world on wheels about 120 years ago. Most notable over the past year has been the remarkable rise of the turbocharger, as makers from Motown to Munich have begun adopting turbocharging and even supercharging to radically downsize engines, boost fuel economy, and cut pollution—usually without sacrificing anything in power or drivability.
This year’s list shows turbocharging up and down the line, from a Japanese hatchback to a British supercar. Of course, the list has a few EVs and hybrids also; as always, our emphasis is on interesting new technology, not just the market share that it commands for now.
